Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can) (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a Nobel Prize-winning writer, and an artist.

Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the Spencer family. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.

He entered government prior to World War I, holding several offices, including Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty. He remained the First Lord from 1911 until the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 forced his departure from the government altogether. He served on the Western Front for a time, but was returned to government as Minister of Munitions in the closing days of the war. He remained part of the government after the war, serving first as Secretary of State for the Colonies and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1920s.

He was out of office again in the early 1930s, but regained some political traction as a voice warning against NaziGermany. At the outbreak of World War II, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister. His steadfast refusal to consider surrender helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the war when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood alone in its active opposition to Adolf Hitler. He cultivated a good relationship with U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, which secured supplies and munitions from the U.S. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Churchill, previously a stout anti-communist, nonetheless opened lines of communication with Joseph Stalin, and provided aide to the USSR. Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the British people. He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured.

Despite these successes, Churchill and the Conservative Party lost the general election in May 1945. Churchill became Leader of the Opposition, and publicly railed against his former ally, Joseph Stalin, popularizing the notion of the "Iron Curtain" surrounding the USSR's sphere of influence. The Conservatives won the general election in 1951, and Churchill became Prime Minister again. His second term saw numerous foreign crisis within the Commonwealth as well the Korean War and a coup in Iran. He suffered a stroke in 1953, although he did not resign until 1955. He remained in Parliament until 1964, and died in 1965.

A pragmatist, Churchill was an early advocate of uniting all of the beligerents in the late Second World War against their new alien foe. He hosted the first two Big Five meetings in London with representatives of Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. During the first meeting, Churchill and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull informed the others present that their countries were already involved in a joint project to build an explosive-metal bomb.[5] During the second meeting in 1943, Churchill strongly advocated that the alliance continue on, even after the Race was defeated or at least pushed back, as the Colonization Fleet was expected to arrive in the 1960s.[6]

Despite the risk of a Race attack, Churchill continued to tour the country throughout 1943, visiting locations such as the Bruntingthorpe Aerodome. During this visit (which he made while riding a bicycle), Churchill was disappointed, although not surprised, to learn that current human science and technology would not be able to duplicate the Race's radar and killercraft technology for the foreseeable future.[7]

Later in 1943, the Race launched an invasion of the British Isles.[8] Churchill issued an ultimatum: the Race had two days to evacuate Britain, or they would be exposed to a type of warfare they had not yet seen.[9]FleetlordAtvar believed Churchill was referring to atomic weapons, and continued the attack. Instead, Churchill ordered the use of poison gas.[10] Completely unprepared, the Race retreated when the casualties grew too high.

With the fighting reaching a stalemate, Atvar called for a cease-fire and a meeting in Cairo with the major human powers. Churchill sent the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, although as the U.K. did not have atomic weapons, Eden was there only informally.[11] Eden, who would eventually succeed Churchill as Prime Minister,[12] ensured Britain's survival as an independent nation, though Churchill was forced to abandon claims to all the colonies of the British Empire,[13] except Canada[14] and New Zealand (which had been too small for the Race to bother with).[15]

In later years, the Race recalled Churchill's stubbornness with horror.[16]

Prime MinisterWinston Churchill faced sharp criticism from the British press for his handling of World War II. British radio described Churchill's assent as a "right-wing coup".[17] His critics were particularly disgusted with Churchill's refusal to accept the sensible peace proposed by Germany early in the war.[18]

In Germany in 2011, a smash-hit musical told the story of a theatre owner who booked a terrible play about Churchill and Joseph Stalin with the intent of scuttling his theatre, only to have the plan backfire when the Churchill-Stalin play became a huge success.[20]

Despite this criticism, Chamberlain appointed Churchill Minister of War in December 1939.[22] Churchill held the position into 1940, frequently giving fiery orations and generally keeping the spirit and the resolve of the country up during these difficult times.[23]

However, in the Spring of 1940, Deputy FührerRudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland, where he was found by Sgt. Alistair Walsh. Walsh took Hess to the appropriate authorities. Germany called for a truce with Britain and France, and Hess began negotiations with the Chamberlain government for a new alliance among Britain, France, and Germany against the Soviet Union.[24] Churchill strongly and publicly opposed this course of action,[25] and soon after he was hit and killed by a drunk driver while crossing the street in London in July.[26] He received a hero's funeral, which simply confirmed for many that he'd been murdered.[27]

Walsh, with whom Churchill had visited shortly before his death,[28] grew disgusted with the change in alliances, and quickly concluded that some part of the government had been responsible for Churchill's death. He resigned from the army and made common cause with a group of British MPs, led by Ronald Cartland, who'd been a Churchill ally.[29]

After the 1941 British Military Coup, the government opened a new inquiry into Churchill's death,[30] but by 1944, it still hadn't found anything to contradict the official story of a drunk driver.[31]

While Churchill was grateful for the help, he could not hide his disdain for the source of that help. He gave a public speech in which he formally accepted Steele's aid, but he concluded this "thank you" by proclaiming that if the U.S. was "too proud" to fight, the U.K. would still take the tools the U.S. had provided and win the war. Churchill concluded: "If the Devil opposed Adolf Hitler, I should endeavor to give him a good notice in the House of Commons. Thus I thank Joe Steele." Steele remembered the back-handed compliment.[34]

This move worried both Churchill and Steele, as both the UK and US had interests in the region, and Indochina would make a viable launching pad for Japan to attack those interests.[36] In response, Steele decided to stop selling Japan scrap metal and oil, and to freeze Japanese assets in the U.S., a course of action that increased the tension between the two countries.[37] Five days after Steele made this decision, on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union.[38] Despite predictions of Russia's inevitable demise, the Soviets were fighting Germany six weeks later, confounding expectations.[39] Churchill had been critical of Leon Trotsky for years, especially as the USSR had been a nominal ally of Germany's from September, 1939 until Germany invaded Russia. Now, he realized the value of making common cause with Trotsky, and arranged a meeting with him.[40]

As Russia was fighting for its life, Churchill met with Joe Steele for the first time in Portland, Maine. Churchill had wanted to meet in Canada or Newfoundland, but as he was essentially coming with hat in hand, Steele demanded the Portland meeting. The two actually met aboard a Royal Navy destroyer off the coast.[41] Churchill's first request was that the U.S. extend aid to Trotsky. Steele initially refused Churchill's request, but as Churchill grew bolder, reminding Steele that the U.S. was as much a prison state as Trotsky's Soviet Union. He also argued that compared with Hitler, Trotsky was reasonable. Without committing (the U.S. still hadn't recognized the Soviet Union), Steele and his aids returned to their ship after extending a dinner invitation to Churchill.[42] That evening, after some cagey behavior, Steele acknowledged that he'd start sending aid to Trotsky, based on the advice of his speechwriter, Charlie Sullivan. Churchill was delighted.[43]

While Steele had preferred to keep the aid quiet, dealing through the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Churchill announced the U.S. assistance to the Soviet Union to the world. While Hitler decried the deal, he did not launch a war with the U.S., as Steele had feared.[44]

While things looked bleak at the beginning of 1942, as the year continued, things started to go the Allies' way. By 1943, Allied victory seemed almost inevitable. In October, Churchill met with Steele and Trotsky in Basra, Iraq, which was still a British protectorate. This marked the first in person meeting of Steele and Trotsky. As part of the conference, Churchill, on behalf of King George VI, presented Trotsky with the Sword of Valor in the name of the Russian people.[46]

The public statement coming out of the conference declared independence for the captured countries of Europe and the Far East and punishment for the German and Japanese leaders causing the war. It also promised the creation of an international organization strong enough to make a lasting peace. Private agreements were also reached where the Soviet Army would help the U.S. invade Japan when it became feasible. Trotsky also had wanted hegemony over all of Eastern Europe and the Balkans but Churchill convinced him to yield influence over Greece to Britain, threatening a naval bombardment of Red Army positions in Greece if it came to that.[47]

With the death of German KaiserWilhelm II in 1941, these rulers launched coordinated assaults on the Central Powers.[53] Churchill violated the neutrality of the Netherlands,[54]Norway,[55] and Ireland[56] in 1941, invading all three countries and driving each to join the Central Powers openly. Despite the diplomatic costs of such a belligerent course, the British did attain their short-term strategic goals in two of the three invasions, at least initially. German forces defeated the British army in Norway.

Churchill did not trust his allies and refused to share jet technology and research on the superbomb with most of them. He and Featherston cooperated in a mission to take Bermuda[57] from the United States, but Britain ultimately occupied Bermuda alone for much of the war.

In 1943, Churchill took advantage of the Royal Navy's defeat of the German High Seas Fleet to begin large-scale operations against the U.S. Navy in the North Atlantic. This proved unwise, as his navy was soundly defeated in the Battle of the North Atlantic and at Bermuda. The US Navy then began supporting the Irish resistance movement. British fortunes suffered elsewhere that year when they were betrayed by Japan, which occupied Malaya;[58] and when Central Powers forces began driving the British out of German and Dutch territory. Through all these setbacks, Churchill, who had by now become the dominant personality throughout the Entente nations of Western Europe, steadfastly refused to concede that British fortunes were suffering.

Though Churchill was able to strike at Germany in 1944 with the destruction of Hamburg[59] via the superbomb, Germany struck right back with three superbombs against London, Norwich, and Brighton.[60] The retaliatory attack promised by Churchill failed, with Germany intercepting the second British superbomb over Belgium.[61] As a result, Churchill was ousted as Prime Minister in a non-confidence vote, and his government fell.[62] A caretaker government was formed under Horace Wilson, who then asked Germany for an armistice.[63]

Before his fall, Churchill relented on his refusal to share technology with his allies, sharing Britain's research on the superbomb with the Confederate States. As a result, the C.S. was the first country to use a superbomb in North America, although it benefited neither the C.S. nor Britain in the long run.[64]